North Pole

Of course we have to visit the place where Santa is during the Summer:

NORTH POLE

Santa will return in May. Until then, the seat is empty...

Fairbanks

Good morning, Fairbanks !

 It' s around -15 'C to -27 'C here. But it's a very dry cold. So it feels warmer than that. Like breathing through "Fisherman's Friend" mint air. In fact, the climate here is a desert climate. Rain below 300 mm per year. So you can compare it to Arizona....

So they told us that it only snows a few cm here, sometimes. But it doesn't melt. It just cumulates. AND CUMULATES.

Well normally. Most people here excuse for the little snow,  that they can't remember so little...

So it's time to go to North Pole...

way to Fairbanks 2

There is a lot of tourism in summer.
In winter  a lot of the attractions are closed. But there is so much left...

Did I say, that the rivers freeze in winter ?

There can be 30 degrees difference between the valleys or within a few minutes.
Writing ice paintings to the car windows....

Yes. There is green coke !

What did we eat at the Thai ? 

way to fairbanks

Meanwhile we feel overdue for our departure to Fairbanks, so, let's go...

We met an Alaskan, wo excused himself for the little snow this year. In fact he could not remember that there was that little snow ever in Alaska...

Wassila, north of Anchorage. Frozen lake...but no snow...

One hour later to the north... :-)

Remember, rivers freeze during Winter...

The highway to Fairbanks goes by the Denali national park.
And mount McKinlenley. The highest mountain in north America.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_McKinley

It takes approx 300 miles / 6 hours to Fairbanks.

Railroad bridge at the railroad depot / Denali National Park.

heading back north again...

Where are we now ?

Be aware of the house rules !!!!

The Forget-me-not is Alaska's national flower.
This is the "Forget-me-not" cocktail.
Mmmmm....

Don't mess with Eva !

Alaska is not far from Munich.qed.

Time for laundry !

Frozen waterfalls

heading south

A few days ago we headed south on the peninsula of Kenai.

But first, the evidence, that also  beer boxes can be a source of education...

This us the south end of Alaska Highway no.1 in Homer, Ak

Frozen ice at the beatch...

Jepp. It's not that cold. Around 0'C. But very humid and windy.  

beach close up...

A lot of towns were destroyed in the 1960'ties. First damaged by earthquake. And
destroyed half an hour later by the Tsunami.

Coast line apartments / hotel.

catching up ...

At the knive shop ... Eva played ball with their dog

We proudly present our new (actually antique) knives ;-))

At the museeum: guess of what material this leafe is? .... IVORY!!! .... made by a Japanese guy ... astonishing 

Photo taken by Eva: "because you can put a lots of food in it!" :-)

 

The micro breweries in Alaska are exellent ... and proud

Eva found a new friend at Seaward

some of our recent purchases

City exploration

We planned to go to Homer today. Yes, like Homer S.

But due to a blizzard warning we had to execute Plan B.

Anchorage Museum

Somebody took the signs too serious ;-)

Beside the departments about (interesting! ) Alaskan history

they have a cool interactive department about physics and nature...

The King Crab we ate yesterday.  Quite good. But tastes like lobster.  And lobster is cheaper...

Later: Visiting Northern Knives. They say they are the biggest knive shop west of the Mississippi. ..